1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to device assembly and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method of device assembly in batch.
2. Related Art
Surface mount technology (SMT) component placement systems, commonly called pick-and-place machines or P&Ps, are robotic machines to place surface-mount devices (SMDs) onto a printed circuit board (PCB). Pick-and-place machines are used for high precision placing of a broad range of electronic components. However, pick-and-place may be disadvantageous in its time-consuming process and costly machinery.
A plastic diaphragm, such as blue tape and UV tape, is a method of packaging electronic components. Plastic diaphragms may still involve a time-consuming process to individually pick-and-place. Moreover, plastic diaphragms may suffer high stress, limited expanding mode, and one-time-use material. Specifically, high stress induced by an expanded diaphragm may damage sensitive device wafers or ultra-thin wafers. Limited expanding modes may result in undesirable positioning for asymmetric diaphragms. Furthermore, it is difficult to control inhomogeneous expanding for various device density requirements in a same wafer.
A mechanical spreader is a re-usable apparatus for batch-type die transferring. Each gripper of the mechanical spreader positions devices with an elastically variable pitch screw. However, there is a manufacturing limit for handling devices with ultra-fine pitches due to complex mechanism assembly. There are also accuracy and reliability issues with the mechanical spreaders due to, for example, rubber wearing and assembly tolerance.